Book Reviews

In The Tea Leaf Paradox, follow author Robert Middleton through the world of new Scottish breweries that now compete with legendary distillers for tourism. This personal travelogue leaves the reader with a strong sense of place and a desire to buy plane tickets.

The Beer Drinker’s Guide to God: The Whole and Holy Truth About Lager, Loving, and Living by William B. Miller is a very funny book. A partner in a Texas bar and an Episcopal priest in Hawaii, Miller works to successfully build the middle ground between these incongruous occupations. He faces life with humor and... View Article

All of us have a few of these in our lives; the bar that was your home away from home. The Sink, Tom’s, The Joyce, McCabes—my past is littered with them. Here is a very slender paean to one such joint. A madcap collection of anecdotes, facts, memories and trivia, Meet Me at Ray’s: A... View Article

As dean of the beer cookbook authors, Lucy Saunders has spent a career innovating while encouraging readers and home cooks to think about beer in new ways. Dinner in the Beer Garden shows the healthier and more sustainable side of things, with dishes mainly focusing on vegetables and fruits. There are also engaging brewery and restaurant... View Article

Colorado Breweries By Dan Rabin To navigate a beer-rich state like Colorado, you need a guide who knows the ins and outs of the breweries. Dan Rabin has established himself as the authority in a state already known for the smart beer-minded. The book is like having the man at your side at every visit,... View Article

Homebrewing is no different from any other hobby. It is undertaken out of curiosity, as a means of self-expression or perhaps even as the foundation for a career. Nearly all of us start from the same place: rudimentary brewing involving extract, specialty grains, a hop addition or two and dried yeast. At some point, though,... View Article

If American brewers are trying to resurrect pre-Prohibition lagers, their counterparts in Britain are also trying to resurrect lost brewing styles. Leading this effort in Britain is Ron Pattinson, who says in his introduction to The Home Brewer’s Guide to Vintage Beer (Quarry Books, Spiral-bound, $24.99, 151 pp) that his research in old brewers’ logbooks... View Article

If you’ve been a homebrewer or beer fan for any time at all, you will no doubt have enjoyed a fair number of unusual styles. Some commercial breweries have staked their claim on the premise of brewing well outside the box of the traditional style. Homebrewers are no less imaginative and adventurous in a quest... View Article

Over half the states in this country are now the subjects of books about the beer culture within their borders. Many of these are focused on the growth of the modern beer movement and are produced by travel-oriented publishers with the beer tourist in mind. A smaller number of such books, however, are inspired by... View Article